Nervous Capitol Hill awaits case's fallout

ANALYSIS

Lawmakers fear ricochet from high flier's plea deal

January 4, 2006|By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, the New York Times

WASHINGTON -- As a high-flying Republican lobbyist, Jack Abramoff has long been known as a mover and shaker in Washington. But when he cut a deal with federal prosecutors Tuesday, he shook up this town as never before.

Not long ago, Abramoff was perhaps Washington's most aggressive -- and, at $750 an hour, most highly compensated -- deal maker, a flamboyant man who moved fluidly through the nexus of money and power. Now his decision to cooperate in a broadening corruption and bribery investigation has thrust him into the role of a corporate insider turning against the company that claimed just to be doing business as usual.

Even before Abramoff left the federal courthouse Tuesday in a trench coat and fedora, nervous lawmakers of both parties, and even the White House, began trying to distance themselves from him.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced that he would donate to charity $69,000 in campaign contributions directed to him by Abramoff.

The plea bargain also had immediate ripple effects for a lawmaker who was once Abramoff's closest ally in the Republican leadership, Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas. DeLay, indicted on a count of money laundering in a separate campaign-related case in Texas, is trying to regain his post as House majority leader, but Abramoff's plea complicates his prospects.

Abramoff, 46, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, and prosecutors said he used campaign contributions, lavish trips, meals and other perks to influence lawmakers and their aides. Court papers filed Tuesday singled out just one member of Congress, "Representative No. 1," identified elsewhere as Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio.

But that was cold comfort on Capitol Hill, where there was a sense of lawmakers and lobbyists' waiting for the other shoe to drop. In a city whose history is rife with scandal and the political price it exacts, from the FBI sting operation known as Abscam to the savings-and-loan collapse involving "the Keating Five," some experts feared that the Abramoff investigation would eclipse all the rest.

Though Abramoff is most closely linked to Republicans, even Democrats, many of whom also benefited from his largess, acted skittish.

"We're talking about people who have long-standing careers in Congress who took contributions from somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew Jack Abramoff," said a Democratic congressional aide who insisted on anonymity so as not to drag his boss into the scandal. "Now they're panicked. The hope is that this investigation will root out the wrongdoing without innocent people getting hit with the ricochet."

Abramoff's plea bargain is scary to Washington's power brokers precisely because he was so entangled with so many of them.

His ties to Grover G. Norquist, a leading conservative strategist and president of Americans for Tax Reform, and Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition who is now a candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia, date from his college days.

He once worked as a lobbyist alongside David Safavian, who was the head of the White House procurement office until just before his arrest last fall in the Abramoff investigation. And Abramoff's former personal assistant once worked for Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political strategist.

At the White House, administration officials have been reluctant to comment on the case, referring questions to the Justice Department and declining to defend Safavian. But on Tuesday morning, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, denounced Abramoff's actions.

"What he is reportedly acknowledging doing is unacceptable and outrageous," McClellan said. "If laws were broken, he must be held to account and punished for what he did."

Some Democrats saw the plea bargain as good political news. They are trying to build their 2006 midterm campaigns around what they call the Republican "culture of corruption" and say Abramoff taps into that theme.

Publicly, Republicans insisted that they were not worried.

"I think there may have been some nervousness, but after reading the plea agreement today and seeing that only one person was named, there's got to be a little bit of relief out there," said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

But privately, some said they were concerned that the Justice Department might try to interpret bribery statutes more broadly than in the past. They fear a lesser standard of proof could ensnare lawmakers, lobbyists and aides, current and former.